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Canadian police acting under orders from US officials raided the headquarters of the British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) in Vancouver on the morning of Friday, July 22.

The search warrants were authorized at the highest levels of the provincial government in concert with a cross-border US-Canada law enforcement pact created by a US-authored Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters treaty (MLAT) between the US and Canada.

The US has issued extradition orders for Marc Emery, who was arrested while traveling in Halifax to a hemp festival; two other Emery associates, including the media icon known as "Marijuana Man," were arrested in Vancouver.

Emery?s arrest was coordinated by Vancouver and Halifax drug agents working together with RCMP (Mounties) and DEA to surveil Emery?s cross-country movements minute by minute, according to statements made by Halifax police officials.

US officials claim that the investigation that led to the raid and arrests involved 50 DEA offices in many US states, as well as local and federal Canadian police forces.

In a major press conference held in Seattle, American officials accused Emery of "conspiracy to produce marijuana and distribute marijuana seeds, and money laundering."

The DEA and other agencies are claiming that by selling seeds to pot-growing Americans, Emery engaged in a criminal enterprise with the growers. In the eyes of his accusers, providing marijuana seeds is the same as selling marijuana produced from those seeds.

"Their activities resulted in the growing of tens of thousands of marijuana plants in America," claimed US federal attorney Jeff Sullivan. "[Emery] was involved, allegedly, in an illegal distribution of marijuana in [the United States.] He is a drug dealer."

Benson referred to the joining of Canadian and US police in the MLAT attack as an "aggressive partnership of law enforcement and intelligence gathering."

The use of MLAT to take down Emery implies that Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, who has been harshly criticized by Emery and his employees due to Cotler?s refusal to back American-born marijuana refugee Renee Boje in her bid to avoid extradition from Canada to the US to face cultivation charges, signed off on the MLAT operation.

It is likely that the highest levels of the Canadian provincial and federal governments were involved in setting up the MLAT investigation and raid, which raises obvious issues of Canadian sovereignty and reveals to Canadians in a very stark way that Canadian law enforcement can sometimes be a tool of US drug agents.

Emery was secretly indicted by a US federal grand jury in May, 2005, officials said, after an investigation that began in early 2004.

The raids were apparently timed to coincide with Emery?s visit to a Nova Scotia hemp festival; during the visit, he was arrested by Mounties and local police acting under orders from the DEA and Vancouver Police.

The DEA and US federal prosecutors hope to bring Emery and his two co-defendants to Seattle for trial in the US. If they are convicted there, they could be sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison, but maximum penalties include life in prison for the 47-year-old activist sometimes known (and described in official DEA records), as the "Prince of Pot."

Of particular interest for customers of Emery?s seed site is the DEA claim that they have traced Emery?s seeds to illegal grows in Indiana, Florida, California, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota.

While it is not known if these claims are accurate, or what action if any the DEA intends to take against people who have grown marijuana using Emery seeds, prudence would dictate that people who have ordered from Emery during the past two years should consider whether they might be a target of investigations, especially if they are involved in large-scale commercial cultivation.

People who have ordered from other internet seed sellers should also be concerned, said a cannabis grower in the US, noting that although viable marijuana seeds are legal in some countries, sending seeds to North America is not.

"I?d guess that anybody who advertises cannabis seeds on the Internet or in a magazine, and their customers, could be a DEA target, whether they are located in Canada, England, Holland, wherever," he said. "If you buy pot seeds from anybody who has a pot seed internet site, you take a risk. It isn?t just people who bought from Emery."

Vancouver Police spokesperson Howard Chow admitted that Emery?s selling of marijuana seeds "is not enough" for him to have been arrested by Canadian authorities acting on their own, and confirmed that the arrests came solely because the DEA had provided motivation and information that led to the raids.

US officials indicated they had been studying Emery?s website and political statements, which contain candid and forthright information provided by Emery about what he sees as a way to use seed sales to fund a political movement.

US Federal Attorney Sullivan, seeking to counter the assertion that Emery is a political activist being prosecuted only because he valiantly fights against marijuana laws, mentioned Emery?s magazine (Cannabis Culture) and his political party, and then specifically asserted that the raids had nothing to do with those media-political activities.

Emery claims to make $3 million a year from selling marijuana seeds online and by mail, along with selling equipment for grow operations, such as fertilizer, lighting, and other products that help people grow plants, according to US officials.

"The fact is, marijuana is a very dangerous drug," Sullivan said. "People don't say that, but right now in America, there are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than every other illegal drug combined."

Sullivan said Emery is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, explaining that his government has requested that Emery not be granted bail and remain in custody for the "six months to two years" before Emery would actually be sent to the US to face charges, if the extradition request is successful.

The DEA said it mounted an 18-month undercover investigation during which Emery sold seeds to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents, by mail and in person. DEA spokespersons noted that Emery was the world?s largest and most professional marijuana seed retailer, offering 600 strains from dozens of suppliers.

Rod Benson, the DEA's Seattle special agent in charge, told a news conference here that Emery showed "overwhelming arrogance and abuse of the rule of law," and added that many marijuana growers would be negatively affected if they are unable to buy seeds from Emery, who is generally acknowledged to have pioneered the worldwide cannabis seed market.

Search warrants were executed on Emery's home, his office and other businesses, Sullivan said. Court documents listed "Prince of Pot" as an alias for the activist.

In 1994, Emery opened a Vancouver-based store called Hemp BC selling marijuana paraphernalia and seeds. Police raided the store in 1996 and again in 1998, confiscating his entire stock. Undaunted, Emery founded the BCMP and expanded his seed empire across the world.

The raid took place at 11 am. According to witnesses, police chained the BCMP doors, put barriers on the windows, and are dismantling the store to seize business records, seeds, computers, and other materials. Police seized cash, employee records and computer records. Vancouver police (VPD) were in charge of the morning raid on the legendary BCMP store in the heart of Vancouver's "Vansterdam" district.

VPD spokespersons attempting to justify the raids in light of the fact that they?ve known about Emery?s seed sales for many years, admitted that complaints from American officials prompted the raids.

"The DEA came to us about a year ago surrounding Marc Emery and asked for our assistance in the criminal investigation that had to do with trafficking a controlled substance," said a VPD spokesperson. "It just comes in terms of resources and priority. We get information and we act on it and we deal with it at that time. You can expect that anybody who engages in criminal activity on a high profile, such as Marc Emery does, is not going to expect to do it forever before you have to account for your actions. It's an ongoing investigation. There may be further charges that come out of this."

Chris Bennett, manager of Pot-TV who was onsite when the BCMP center was raided, said he is particularly angry that Vancouver police and other Canadians were acting as enforcers of American drug laws against Canadian citizens.

"They're taking him down to face charges in the United States of America, where sentences are much harsher that one would face in Canada," said Bennett.

Emery has been arrested for marijuana-related "crimes" many times before, but those other arrests involved local Canadian charges and jurisdictions. Today's charges are far more serious because they involve US federal laws that stipulate mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years, with life imprisonment a possibility.

Last year, Emery served 91 days in a Saskatoon, Canada jail for passing a joint.

American officials are seeking Emery's extradition, but extradition battles can take many years in the courts. Emery now becomes yet another high-profile cannabis activist seeking to fight off American attempts to prosecute him in the US.

Renee Boje, whose husband Chris Bennett works for Emery at BCMP as manager of Pot-TV, has been fighting for years to quash a US extradition order. Her legal costs have been funded by Emery.

The bi-lateral law enforcement treaty (MLAT) that snared Emery and his compatriots is part of a controversial global American network of treaties allowing the US to use foreign police agents to investigate and arrest foreign citizens on behalf of the United States.

MLAT's help the US violate civil rights protections and other constitutional protections that would normally be afforded to citizens by their own countries.

The first US bilateral MLAT, between America and Switzerland, was entered into in 1977. The treaties are seen as a powerful tool of US foreign policy and hegemony, but have rarely been used against marijuana defendants. Dozens of countries have entered into MLAT's with the US since 1977; the treaties are seen as a way for US police and prosecutors to arrest people no matter where they live, even if they are not guilty of a serious or arrestable crime in their home country.

The MLAT treaties favor prosecutors and police, and make it virtually impossible for defense attorneys to advocate for clients snared by MLAT operations.

MLAT's have been criticized in other countries. Critics say US MLAT actions against foreigners violate international law, compromise human rights, and violate national sovereignty.

The Irish Human Rights Commission has complained about a US-Ireland MLAT that allows CIA agents to secretly question Irish citizens on Irish soil.

The MLAT signed by Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and US Ambassador to Ireland James Kenny gives sweeping powers to US authorities operating in Ireland, including the right to seize documents, check bank accounts and carry out searches of property.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said it would be examining the agreement, which was pushed through with the promise that it would only be used to assist the US "war on terror."

Human rights activists in Ireland are particularly concerned that CIA interrogations of Irish citizens will be carried out in secret and that the costs of CIA operations in Ireland will be paid by Irish taxpayers.

The cross-border MLAT efforts sometimes involve enforcement of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances that was finalized worldwide on November 11, 1990.

It is possible that Emery and his associates would be charged with violating this Convention. In past years, UN officials have condemned Emery by name.

The raids leave many questions unanswered.

Although Emery is the highest profile marijuana activist in the world, who publicly airs reality television shows portraying all aspects of marijuana culture and who hosts marijuana connoisseur events like the Toker's Bowl, he is by far not the only person selling marijuana seeds across international boundaries from downtown Vancouver.

Vansterdam insiders note that while police were raiding Emery's store on West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, other marijuana seed businesses in the BCMP building and across the street were still open for business, and people were smoking marijuana while watching the raid.

The issue of selective prosecution is also raised by insiders who note that US and Canadian officials are aware of massive cross-border organized crime operations that involve guns, hard drugs, and other illegality on a scale that dwarfs Emery's marijuana-only, politically-inspired seed business.

Few if any of the many hardcore cross-border violent criminals who are well-known to police on both sides of the border have been pursued with the ferocity evidenced by today?s raids on Emery and BCMP. The use of MLAT to attack a non-violent symbol of marijuana activism seems like unprecedented overkill to Vansterdam denizens, and is a sign that the drug war has created an unprecedented, troubling alliance between US and Canadian police, prosecutors and politicians.

Anti-marijuana Canadian politician Randy White applauded the raids, saying that Emery has been arrested many times and not sufficiently punished for his marijuana activities.

"Marijuana crimes are serious and that's why they [the U.S.] are doing something about it. Our government tends to sit back and wait for a catastrophe," White said.

Libby Davies, a Vancouver-area Member of Parliament who represents the progressive NDP political party, countered that the arrests go against the views of most Canadians, who support decriminalization of marijuana and who had not demanded that Emery?s marijuana businesses be shut down. The head of the NDP, influential federal politician Jack Layton, has appeared on Emery?s television shows and publicly supported virtual legalization of cannabis.

"I think it's very disturbing that the Vancouver police department is raiding a local business and arresting people for the U.S. war on drugs," Libby Davies said. "It feels to me like the long arm of U.S. enforcement reaching into Canada."

Protesters have been holding vigil and staging protests at Emery's store in Vancouver. Long-time Emery friend and cannabis activist Dana Larsen said a rally for Emery and BCMP was being planned.

"The real reason the US police want Marc Emery behind bars is because he is an outspoken and politically active advocate for marijuana legalization," Larsen said. "Please help protest this attack on Canadian sovereignty and waste of police resources. It?s time to end the war on pot."

Emery has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail money, attorneys, and other support for many marijuana arrestees. He now finds himself in need of support, caught in the talons of the US government agents and its Canadian law enforcement lackeys, which he, his magazine, and his website accurately describe as totalitarian, imperialist hit squads that exhibit no respect for borders, democracy, or human rights.

For the man who is often called "The Prince of Pot," today's arrest is the ultimate, if not unanticipated, showdown with forces of darkness.

Despite the always-imminent threat of arrest, Emery has since leaving prison last year created some of the best reality television in the world, but many of his shows could be viewed as self-incrimination that provides irrefutable evidence that Emery breaks marijuana laws.

He also recently hosted the Toker?s Bowl, an event that celebrates marijuana as if it were legal, bringing cannabis lovers to Vancouver from around the world.

Emery?s actions appear to arise from his conscious choice to defy the drug war, regardless of the consequences.

After leaving jail last year, Emery said, "Once you get over your fear of whatever they can do to you, you become empowered to just live as if marijuana is legal, without much concern for the consequences they threaten you with. Whatever they do to me- arrest, incarceration, even if they kill me- it's not going to make me live in fear. We're going to continue to show them that marijuana should be legal, that our culture is harmless and vibrant, and that it is the drug war, not the cannabis culture, which threatens public order and safety."

BCMP Decries Loss of Canadian Sovereignty

Help free Marc Emery from American tyrany

Imprisoned activist Marc EmeryToday the offices of the BC Marijuana Party, a registered political party in British Columbia, were caught up in a DEA-instigated raid. The raid is a dramatic example of the loss of Canadian sovereignty to the US drug war. The focus of the US drug war is marijuana, with over 750,000 annual possession charges laid and draconian penalties for possession, cultivation and sales of the plant. Until today, Canada took a different approach.

Unfortunately, the Canadian governement appears to have abdicated its sovereignty to the United States. Most Canadian (and, indeed, most Americans) do not agree with with the war on marijuana users. It is a dark day when Canadian municipal police officers are called upon to do the bidding of US masters.

This raid must serve as a call to arms. Canada is losing the ability to independently create its drug policy, despite reams of scientific and empirical evidence that prohibition is more dangerous than a regulated approach to cannabis distribution. The battle for freedom, equality and tolerance must be fought and won. We must not allow our Canadian way of life to be subjected to the whim of the US White House and its repressive policies.

The BCMP will continue to fight for the freedom of the cannabis community, both in Canada and abroad.

Contacts:

Kirk Tousaw, Campaign Manager604.836.1420 (cell)

Who is Marc Emery

Marc Emery, Canada's Prince of Pot

Four million pot seeds and eight years of tireless activism in support of the marijuana movement.

In November 2002, Cannabis Culture publisher Marc Emery completed his second run for Mayor of Vancouver, Canada's West Coast cannabis capital. The renowned pot seed merchant placed fifth on the crowded ballot, participating in all major debates and campaigning under the banner of the Vancouver Marijuana Party.

"I gave out thousands of leaflets outside games for our local Vancouver Canucks," Emery told Cannabis Culture. "I am a big hockey fan and I had them make me a special 420 Canucks jersey. They said I was the only one they would do with a 420, because I am a season's ticker holder."

This isn't Emery's first foray into pot politics. He is founder and President of the BC Marijuana Party, which fielded candidates in every one of the province's 79 ridings during the 2000 elections. The new party took part in one of the two major televised leaders debates, and took 3.5% of the total vote (CC#33, Marijuana Party makes BC history).

Emery is also a primary backer of the federal Canadian Marijuana Party, for which he ran as a candidate in the 2000 federal elections. Emery also ran for Mayor of Vancouver once before, in 1996.

Marc Emery is Canada's most well-known marijuana activist, and among the world's biggest dealers in marijuana seeds. He is a powerful influence in the global ganja culture and is singlehandedly helping to shape North American marijuana policy. The media has dubbed Emery "The Prince of Pot" and he enjoys the title, dispensing moral and financial support to all the activists that cross his path.

Retail revolution

Emery became a full-time pot activist in 1994, when he moved to Vancouver and founded a small store called Hemp BC. At the time, bongs, pipes, and growbooks were all illegal in Canada, and available at few if any stores.

Emery broke open the country's underground paraphernalia industry, and helped dozens of similar stores get started across the nation, wholesaling pipes and hemp products to a growing network of pro-pot businesses. Thanks to Emery's pioneering efforts and the dedication of those who took up the challenge and followed his lead, Canada now has dozens of hemp stores and head shops, all independently owned but financially and morally committed to the same goal. The law has not changed, but it is now widely ignored.

"Spreading a revolution through retail is probably the niftiest idea that we ever came up with," says Emery. "It inhibits a marijuana revolution to have a lack of money. With hemp stores, people are disseminating information in a self-sufficient way which puts them in the public sphere. This gets them lots of media attention, access to people, retail advertising, and the business community. You get social acceptance in a completely different way."

Raids and rebuilding

By the end of 1994 Emery had added a small selection of Dutch marijuana seeds for sale at his store. Emery was inspired by a speech Ben Dronkers of Sensi Seeds made at the 1994 High Times Cannabis Cup. "Ben Dronkers got up and explained that he had been responsible for disseminating millions of seeds, creating millions and millions of marijuana plants!" enthused Emery. "I realized that this was the way to fight this revolution."

Emery's Hemp BC store and its over the counter seed business grew dramatically, and he began to get serious media attention. Emery made the front page of the Wall Street Journal in December 1995, leading to a deluge of media attention, and the Vancouver police launching a serious raid one month later in January 1996. Police cleaned out the Hemp BC store, seized Emery's stash of seeds and charged him with multiple paraphernalia and pot seed related offenses.

Emery re-opened his store the next day, and took a year to slowly rebuild his business. By 1997 he had successfully expanded his store to include a Grow Shop, a Legal Assistance Centre, and the Cannabis Cafe, which featured a custom-built vaporizer built into every table. Yet police returned in December 1997, and then launched multiple raids during 1998, repeatedly seizing all the store's stock and eventually forcing the store and affiliated businesses to shut down entirely.

Despite the financial devastation and legal challenges, Emery persisted, switching his marijuana seed business to mail-order only, and focusing his efforts on publishing Cannabis Culture magazine. By early 2000 he was successfully expanding again, this time onto the Internet, with the establishment of Pot-TV, the marijuana video channel at www.pot-tv.net. Pot-TV now has an archive of over 500 hours of video - about 1000 pot-related shows available for online viewing.

"I've been arrested 10 times since 1994, and jailed on eight of those occasions," explains Emery. "I've been found guilty of numerous counts of trafficking in marijuana seeds, but the courts here don't give me anything more than a reasonable fine. Since I stopped selling seeds over the counter the police seem to have decided I'm not worth the effort, as my seed business hasn't been raided since 1998. I continue to carry the world's largest selection of marijuana seeds available by mail-order."

Seed sales pioneer

Before Emery began his marijuana seed business, pot seeds were not commercially available in Canada at all. Now there are a dozen businesses which offer mail-order seeds, and a half-dozen more who do over-the-counter sales. Yet no single dealer offers the wide variety of strains and companies which Emery continues to provide.

"I've sold about four million seeds," claims Emery. "That represents tens of millions of plants because most of these plants are grown out from seed and then cuttings are taken and hundreds of copies are made. There's just no way the government has destroyed as much pot as we've created. So it's possible that one person can undo the evil of several thousand people. You should never underestimate your power."

"Unlike most other seed dealers, I use my real name and I'm easy to find. I've been selling marijuana seeds for eight years, sending seeds to growers all over the world, including diverse places like the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, England, South Africa, and even Korea. Business is better every year. If I wasn't honest I'd have been run out of business or killed a long time ago."

Financial fighter

Unlike many businessmen in the marijuana movement, Emery puts his money where his mouth is. "I redirect the money I make on seeds back into the movement," explains Emery. "I am totally committed to ending the war on marijuana."

Emery is a major financial backer of almost every pro-pot effort in North America and many more around the world. Emery has funded almost every significant Canadian cannabis court challenge, including the major constitutional challenge coming to Canada's Supreme Court this Spring, which could rewrite Canada's marijuana prohibition. Between 2000 and 2002, Emery invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in election campaigning for the Canadian Marijuana Party, BC Marijuana Party and the Vancouver Marijuana Party.

Emery has also made significant donations to various pro-pot ballot initiatives in US states such as California, Nevada, Alaska and Arizona, as well as buying full-page ads to support the election campaign of the Legalize Cannabis Party in New Zealand.

Other major donations to the marijuana cause include efforts as diverse as helping out refugee activists like Renee Boje and Steve Kubby, donating to Australia's Nimbin Hemp Embassy, supporting Russian cannabis researchers, aiding American drug-war prisoners, financing Canadian compassion clubs, backing the worldwide Million Marijuana March, and helping dozens of individual activists around the world with cash donations.

His tireless activism has garnered Emery some serious media attention. "I've been profiled in Time magazine, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, USA Today, the Sunday Times of England, the Asian Wall Street Journal, even the National Enquirer, plus Mexico's national newspaper, all of Canada's major newspapers and TV stations, and countless other radio, TV, newspaper and magazine interviews I've given over the years," explains Emery. "In all of these forums I have always put forth a clear denunciation of prohibition and the many beneficial uses of marijuana and hemp."

Early history

Long before he got involved in marijuana, Emery was always an activist for social justice and civil liberties. In 1975, at the age of 16, he opened a bookstore in his hometown of London, Ontario, which he ran for 18 years before coming west to British Columbia.

"During this time I did dozens of freedom crusades," explained Emery. "That was the whole idea of the bookshop; to allow me to forward all sorts of unusual civil rights and individual liberties issues that no one else seemed to do. I soon realized why - they were all endlessly time consuming, money consuming and very discouraging.

"For two years I went out four or five nights a week to distribute pamphlets in the city, to get people against a tax-paid sports event or what have you. I was also constantly defending variety stores that sold explicit literature. I sold the banned 2 Live Crew CD. Every kind of culture or information that was under assault, our store would defend it or go to court, or do something to draw attention to it."

Emery broke Ontario's laws banning shopping on Sundays for eight straight weeks, a different way each time. One Sunday he gave away books for free and still got charged. After eight weeks of being charged every Sunday, he got convicted.

"I refused to pay the fine," explained Emery, "and I was sent to jail. You get $30 a day off the fine for every day you spend in jail, and the public raised $380 of the $500 fine, so that was enough to get me out of jail after four days. They dropped the other seven charges because I was getting too much publicity."

Emery also tried to get charged for selling banned marijuana literature from his bookstore. "I gave away High Times magazine in front of the police department. Hundreds of people rallied to get charged for that, but we didn't. They refused to charge me."

Rattling the Czar

Emery hasn't slowed down over the years, if anything he is managing to bring his brand of in-your-face activism to higher levels than ever before.

In late November 2002, shortly after the Vancouver election, US Drug Czar John Walters paid a visit to the city. Walters was scheduled to speak before a $500 per table luncheon sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade.

Emery bought tickets for a table and invited fellow activists like David Malmo-Levine and Chris Bennett to attend.

Emery walked up to Walter and asked if he could have his photo taken together. Walters asked who Emery was, and when Emery smiled and replied "I'm publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine" Walters turned red and quickly backed away.

With secret service agents at every entrance, eyeing the room behind dark sunglasses, Emery and his crew sat at their table, ate their lunch and politely booed America's highest anti-drug official as he took the microphone.

Emery, Bennett and Malmo-Levine called out "liar" and other short comments while Walters spoke about America's high rate of "marijuana addicts," and how tolerant "harm reduction" policies would destroy Vancouver.

A nearby table consisted of all police officers, who were eager to hear the drug czar speak and resented the presence of the potheads. "Why don't you shut up?" asked officer Toby Hinton angrily, but it was to no avail.

The officers were also likely upset that Emery had recently filed an official complaint against the Vancouver Police. Emery had complained because these same officers had improperly used a police car to pick up American anti-drug crusader Betty Sembler and drive her to an anti-drug conference. Officers had also put information from their private database onto an overhead display at the conference (CC#39, Anti-pot conference panned). Emery's formal complaints were eventually dismissed.

The showdown between Pot Prince and Drug Czar concluded peacefully, with a shaken Walters finishing his speech and being hustled off. Emery went outside to smoke joints with the handful of protestors holding anti-drug war signs in front of the building.

The next day, Emery revelled in the attention. "We got more media coverage from this one event than my whole campaign for mayor!" exclaimed Emery while looking through the papers and answering calls for interviews.

Vancouver's past and present Mayors were both at Walters' speech, both strong proponents of harm reduction and safe injection sites for heroin users. In interviews after the luncheon, new Mayor Larry Campbell questioned Walters' statements, and said that he still intended to continue with his plans to introduce more tolerant drug policies.

Future plans

Vancouver pot activists celebrated when the Hemp BC location was re-opened in 2001, as the storefront of the BC Marijuana Party. "I'm glad to see the old location up and running again," smiles Emery. "As a political party we don't need to get a city business license, so the municipal bureaucrats can't mess with us anymore."

"I had the pleasure of testifying before the Canadian Senate Committee which has recently recommended total legalization of marijuana," says Emery, "and I got to meet with and even interview MP Randy White, the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Drugs which recommended decriminalizing personal possession. Plus, I just had the honor of interviewing Tommy Chong for Pot-TV! So there's fun to be had even while we fight the forces of oppression."

When asked to explain why he devotes his time and money to this altruistic cause, Emery waxes philosophic.

"You have to know with absolute certainty that what you are pursuing is the righteous and the good and the proper and the just, and that the people we are dealing with are evil and wrong, and as long as they're in control this world will never be a safe and moral place to be," declares Emery solemnly.

"I advocate the position of liberty, the position of justice, the position of non-violent freedom for all people to do what they want, to put in their body what they want, and to act in a manner that is suitable to them without interference from others, especially their government.

"The war on marijuana and other sacred plants is the most important issue of our time. I want to see drug-peace in my lifetime. I hope that we can make Canada into a beacon of tolerance and freedom for our American neighbors, and for all pot-people around the globe. Together, we will overgrow the government!"

certainly super-lame. lets hope that those in power in Canada wont let him be extradited. Life in prison has got to be cruel and unusual punishment, by anyones book....

--------------------After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus

--------------------"this lebowski he called himself 'the dude'. now, 'dude', that's a name no one would self-apply where i come from but there was a lot about the dude that didn't make sense to me...."--the Stranger

Quote:"The fact is, marijuana is a very dangerous drug," Sullivan said. "People don't say that, but right now in America, there are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than every other illegal drug combined."

EL OH EL. talk about bullshit.

anyways, Me and my buddy are friends with Marc Emery. We go to his events as much as possible and we visit him alteast once a week @ his store @ Vancouver (BCMP) to have a toke or a bong hit with Marc and his knowing the guy personally, I kno his a genuine good guy who fights for what he believe is the right cause.I hope and pray that the good and true will justified in this trial.damn i hope America could just calm the fuck down, educate themselves and stop policing the whole fuckin' world! Reefer Madness if back .

peace, angry British Columbian.

--------------------?Religion is science, politics is Hollywood, and 50 cent is more influential than Dali Lama; welcome to the future?
-Fontaine

"The fact is, marijuana is a very dangerous drug," Sullivan said. "People don't say that, but right now in America, there are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than every other illegal drug combined."WTF??? That sentence is full of bullshit and ignorance.

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." -RobertA.Heinlein

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies.
My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness."-DalaiLama

When I said USA owns Canada, I am not speaking favorably about America. In this situation the USA, as far as I'm concerned, forced Canada to do this! I think that's ridiculous. I am American but I don't particularly care that I am.. it seemed that Canada, ESPECIALLY the B.C. was actually getting somewhere with these marijuana laws and then the America's DEA think that they own Canada, and put Marc Emery in jail!

--------------------The clouds above us join & separate,The breeze in the courtyard leaves & returns.Like is like that, so why not relax?Who can stop us from celebrating?-Lu Yu

Quote:it seemed that Canada, ESPECIALLY the B.C. was actually getting somewhere with these marijuana laws and then the America's DEA think that they own Canada, and put Marc Emery in jail!

As a Canadian that lives in B.C & who lives very close to the BCMP in Vancouver i couldent agree more with you dante.

As i have said in a previous post Marc Emery is not charged with any crime in Canada he would be scott free if the USA did not interfere.

Marc Emery is all about marijuana laws & marijuana culture he has made a lot of money from his BCMP bookstore & from his online seed company but he always gives back to fight marijuana laws & culture.

An example of what Marc has given back to the cannabis community if he sounds like he is bragging it is because this text was taken from the forums were he was insulted by a member & asked to explain were his money goes.

My money financed successful court challenge to the literature & video provision in section 462.2 of the Canadian Criminal Code. From 1988 to 1995, all literature, printed matter, video about any illegal drug was illegal to distribute in Canada. High Times was unavailable in this period, banned from Canada. All remaining copies of the Canadian Grow Yer Own Stone were seized by RCMP in 1988 under this law. All paraphernalia stores were put out of business.

I paid the money for Alan Young to go to court in 1995 and have this provision declared unconstitutional, which we successfully accomplished. Now there are HEADS, GreenThumb, High Times, Skunk Magazine, all legal because of me, Alan Young and Umberto Iorfida.

Furthermore, by 1994, there were virtually no paraphernalia shops in Canada as the 1988 law had put over 200 out of business within 5 years. There was no hemp stores known in 1994 except HEMP BC and the Great Canadian Hemporium in London, Ontario. We published the pamphlet and article in 1995, 'How To OPen Your Own Hemp Store', a model used by over 50 shops in Canada. Opening a hemp store and selling marijuana pipes, bongs, (and now bubblebags, mushroom kits,seeds) was all pioneered by me, so that in Canada we take for granted that its legal to sell pipes, bongs, bubblebags, seeds, but it is in fact illegal. Its not enforced because I been raided 5 times in very big public raids and it is our activists (David Malmo-Levine, myself) using money and opportunity provided by my organization that carved out 'safe zones' where none previously existed. The Supreme Court Case of 2003, where we did lose 6-3, was paid for over the years in large part by our organization. I would have to say that the 9 million videos viewed on POT-Tv.net is conceivably the greatest activist accomplishment in the modern period after getting rid of the literaturee law in 1995. POT-TV.net makes no money, it has surely lost well over $700,000 since its first day on January 1, 2000, but it has revolutionized the way the movement gets access to reports and the speed with with visual activism can be disseminated.

Since 1999, our organization has contributed $100,000+ to the (Million) Global Marijuana March, which sees marches & forums on legalization across the Globe. Where there are marches, the environment for marijuana tolerance is greater. Vancouver, Toronto rallies demonstrate to other Canadians that masses of Canadians can meet and celebrate Cannabis in a way that sets excellent precedents and examples for the rest of Canada.

Our organization has given Loretta Nall serious money over 2 years. This money has sent Loretta to Columbia to photograph aerial spraying of farms of peasants. Loretta is currently shepherding the Alabama Compassionate Use Act in the Alabama Statehouse. With our support, Loretta and I managed to get worldwide attention on Webster Alexander, who received a 36 year sentence for two sales of a ounce to an undercover in rural Alabama. We got Rolling stone Magazine to come out and write about Alabama sentencing and webster's case. Webster served 30 days, then weekends, for a year, because of our efforts, of his 36 year setence.

Over 25 conferences would not have happened without our money, including Mayor Larry Campbell making his public announcement last year at BEYOND PROHIBITION conference, that marijuana should be legal. This has elevated the debate in Canada as Larry Campbell repeats this often. I ran against Larry Campbell and had an opportunity to say marijuana should be legal in all my speeches in front of him. He never brought up legal marijuana before I met him, but he sure did afterward.

Jack Layton came to me for an interview on POT-TV.net. What have we accomplished? Well, the leader of Canada's third national party (currently polling well), Jack Layton has put his party on a more solidly legalization footing than any previous NDP leader. Thats a first, a national party that works in Parliament to reduce the scope of the drug war.

Not everything works, but one keeps trying. I paid legal fees, bail money, opportunity for US refugess like Steve Kubby and Renee Boje. We gave $25,000 to the Nevada legalization ballot initiative, thousands to the Alaskan legalization ballot initiative in 2002 and 2004, $7,000 to Dennis Kucinich to keep up his decriminalization message in his Presidential campaign. We were an early funder of the Marijuana Policy Project in 1999.

I bought full page ads in the daily newspapers when the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Countries) leaders were in Vancouver in 1997 to berate them for their human rights record on pot in their respective countries. This was so offensive to the Canadian government that we were raided 4 weeks later.

There are many things possible today that were not possible in Canada when I started this legalization work back in 1991. You can publish, sell and buy literature about drugs and pot, over 1,000 titles of magazine and book, that were illegal when I started.

You can own a hemp store and not get arrested and raided.

You can publicize your injustice to hundreds of thousands of people through my media.

There are 100 seed vendors in North America, ONLY because I blazed a trail of selling & delivering seeds because I was willing to continue after police seized nearly $1,000,000 in assets and several arrests. I lost HEMP BC and the Cannabis Cafe to raids but we did not lose the war. I got raided so others have not had to.

Public opinion in Canada that favour legal possession went from 26% in 1994 to 52% in 2004. Medical marijuana legal endorsement went from 35% to 82% from 1994 to 2004.

Oh yes, did you know I established that marijuana WAS actually legal up to October 7, 2003 with my 18 city Summer of Legalization Tour. Thousands of Canadians did not get charged because police depts. and attorney-generals were scared off of charging Canadians because court cases (in small part paid for by me) established that there was no marijuana law. I went to jail on six occasions to make that point, and spent $20,000 in airfares and hotel rooms to finance that tour. The Hitzig decision existed in an ether of unawareness until my SOL TOUR made it common to every student and toker in Canada that marijuana was, for a summer anyway, legal, legal, legal.

What has that $2,000,000 got anyone. More than you can imagine, because it is impossible for any one person to be aware of the over 1,000 receiptiants, campaigns, bail hearings, court cases, ballot initiatives, conferences, elections, full page ads, store restart donations, of that $2,000,000.

I mean, we saved Webster Alexander from spending another 35 years in jail for two ounces of pot. That may have cost me about $5,000. That's good value! And there are many, many others.